Artistic Interventions
"This re-embodiment of class struggle can also be an artistic experience - and an experiment that reverses and transforms the concept of art - it is because the articulation of the old divides has radically changed. In the face of an all-dominating capitalist class which has imposed a global division of labor, and extended its ideological grip over core populations through the devices of popular stockholding, speculative pension funds, and the seductive traps of consumer credit, the focus of struggle is no longer so much the rate of the industrial wage, as the very existence and production of that which lies outside the cash nexus... In the best of cases, opposition becomes a prelude to radical invention." Brian Holmes, Revenge of the Concept Several artists and art collectives focus on contemporary media as an important site for exploration and investigation of normative ideologies. Though all of these projects seek to disturb normative ideologies of media, the projects are not meant to be expressly political - they are more intended to disturb and provide alternative viewpoints. The media that these artists engage in is varied, stretching from contemporary television to the use of mobile devices for functionality that reaches beyond phone calls. Ant Farm Ant Farm (1968-1978) was a California-based architecture collective that originally began with the proposition to restructure architecture education to focus on community rather than 'rigid norms.' However, the group later came to explore areas of 'cultural introspection' by making artworks (including film and installation) that represented a kind of visceral reaction to contemporary mass media. The main members were Chip Lord (current lecturer and head of F+DM at UCSC), Hudson Marquez, and Doug Michels. Works thumb|left|200px|InflatablesInflatables (1971) The Inflatables were a series of structures that were used to stage happenings and public performances. The group took the Inflatables on a cross-country performance/lecture tour in 1971. Ant Farm also wrote a how to book on making inflatable structures called Inflatocookbook ''with the intention of propagating the structures across the country. Caddilac Ranch (1974) After buying several Cadillac models from between 1949 and 1963 the group half-buried the cars on a ranch in Amarillo, Texas in a straight line according to model year. The installation examines the evolution of American cultural mythologies - a significant aesthetic feature of the work is the change of the Cadillac's 'tail fin' over time for each new year. ''Media Burn ''(1975) A performance piece (later translated to video) in which fake newscasters 'cover' a spoof spaceship takeoff in the San Francisco Cow Palace parking lot. After several interviews, the Ant Farm team boards their spacecraft (a Cadillac customized to look like a space shuttle) and blast off by driving through a flaming wall of televisions. The piece is essentially about mass media and what notions get brought forth through national media discourse. With ''Media Burn, Ant Farm seeks to expose the spectacle of dominant media. Video (Crash at 5:00) Los Cybrids: La Raza Techno-Critica Collective Los Cybrids was a group of three poly-ethnic digital media practitioners that sought to critique cyber-culture/digital culture by using technology as a tool for artistic expression. As member Praba Pilar states, "Our work employed performance, burla and high-tech art to undermine the passive acceptance and unacknowledged overarching social, cultural and environmental consequences of Information Technologies (IT)." On a more specific level, Los Cybrids addressed the mythic goal of digital culture to provide equality via equal access of content, a goal found specifically in groups that seek to bridge the 'digital divide' between social groups who have internet access and those who do not. Los Cybrids asserted that instead of restructuring power to provide equality by access, information technologies instead enforce already existing power structures. Pilar's site describes this stance by saying, "We resisted the idea that cyberspace provides a “level playing field” on which cultural difference is immaterial. Underlying notions of cyberspace include the idea that all people can or should gain access to “white male middle-class culture.” The promoters of the “Digital Divide” feed into this inequity by creating an imperative for ‘marginalized’ people in and outside of the US to ascribe to and strive for access to the white male middle-class ideology of a cultural geography without difference, friction-free capitalism and unfettered cultural harmony." Some Works Digital Mural Project (2001) A series of digital murals (Last One to Cross the Digital Divide is a Rotten Egg, El 'Webopticon, Humaquina) displayed publicly at the San Francisco Galeria de la Raza's outdoor billboard. The project fused imagery of biology and technology - a representation of the digital person, with a focus on what information tech means for communities of color. A major thematic focus of this work is the ability of digital culture and information technology to affect those who are not directly connected over digital networks. Galeria de la Raza's description (1) Galeria de la Raza's description (2) Pilar's Site (With Images) Tecno-Promesas: Putografia Virtua(2001) A multimedia installation consisting of one day's worth of computer waste from a San Francisco dump along with a sound installation made out of old Mac computers. This piece highlights the way that information technology has come to dominate contemporary life - as Pilar states, "piece exposes the passive acceptance of Information Technologies and the litany of optimism about the possible future of the planet." Video works: Green Dream - Narrative that deals with issues of connectivity, consciousness, and identity. Global Warmaquina - video remix/collage about the pervasiveness of Information Technology Billboard Liberation Front The Billboard Liberation Front (BLF) is a group of culture jammers, activists, and graffiti artists dedicated to bringing alternative voices to billboard advertisement. Their manifesto explicates their belief that each individual in the world should have an opportunity for their message to be broadcast on billboards. The group's mission is to reclaim the public space of billboards to allow for alternative messages, a way for people to take back that expressive public space. The group's tongue-in-cheek delivery suggests that the BLF partners with organizations like AT&T, the NSA , Phillip Morris , McDonalds ,Wachovia Bank , and liquor brands Johnny Walker and Courvoisier . BLF is an example of media activism in that the group reclaims public space through the medium of billboards. thumb|300px|right|Explanatory Video Ricardo Dominguez and the Transborder Immigrant Tool Ricardo Dominguez is a UCSD professor/activist/artist/theorist. He was part of the Critical Art Ensemble from 1987 to 1994, co-founded Electronic Disturbance Theater in the mid-1990s, and is currently working on a handful of projects, one of which is the Transborder Immigrant Tool , a software application that aims to help undocumented immigrants traverse the US-Mexico border safely. The project is a collaboration between Dominguez, Brett Stahlbaum, Amy Sarah Carroll, and Micha Cardenas. In its implementation, the Tool will exist as software on cracked Motorola phones that will be given to those preparing to make the journey from Mexico. Through a GUI interface that utilizes the phone's GPS technology, immigrants will be able to detect upcoming objects (like food or water left out by Border Angels) or people (NGOs that seek to help immigrants, minuteman/militia groups that try to catch immigrants). The overall goal of the project, as said by Dominguez , is to ensure the safety of those transborder immigrants - to prevent any more immigrant deaths on the US-Mexico border. Important to the project is the idea of disturbance - the tool is meant to disturb and disrupt our notions of what the border is, to make us question if that border even exists. Dominguez insists that this project is not meant to represent a certain political position, but is instead about securing the safety of immigrants while disrupting common ideas. While this project utilizes the very contemporary medium of mobile technology, it is an ongoing media-activism project. While the project is currently in development (and will be for some time), Dominguez is already getting shit from conservatives. US Representative Duncan Hunter (a Republican serving California's 52nd district which includes north and east San Diego) has gone on record as calling the project an irresponsible use of technology and taxpayer grant money. The story has been picked up by Fox News and Dominguez has even been bashed on Glenn Beck's TV and radio program. Micha Cardenas' Talk (Skip to 7:03)